Longmeadow's Camille Blackman won the Division I girls cross country title. (The Republican file photo)

PITTSFIELD - This was a day of first in high school girls cross country.

The Northampton girls won their first Division I Western Massachusetts title with another solid performance at Berkshire Community College on Saturday's

Longmeadow junior Camille Bllackman won her first individual race with the only sub-19-minute time among the girls (18:59).

'Belchertown was the little school that could. The Orioles qualified for their first Division I state meet by finishing third.

For the first time in 16 seasons, Amherst Regional finished second, ending the Hurricanes streak of 15 straight sectional titles. Amherst will join Northampton and Belchertown at Saturday's state meet in Gardner.

In Division II, Holyoke Catholic was second to qualify for the state meet for the sixth straight season. Mount Greylock won the meet and Lenox made states by taking third.

"It was a total team effort,'' Holyoke Catholic coach John Goda said. "Our three, four and five runners really stepped up.''

After going undefeated during the regular season and winning its first PVIAC meet a week ago, Northampton entered the meet as the favorite. The Blue Devils were cautiously optimistic, but not overconfident going into the meet.

"We had a great regular season, but until today, we hadn't won anything yet ,'' Northampton coach Nate Kraft said.

Now that they have, could the Blue Devils emerge as the next dynasty?

"We're going to enjoy this first,'' Kraft said. "We're not looking ahead to next year.''

'That's because the season isn't over and the Blue Devils are intent on representing Western Mass. well in the state meet.

"Coming in my freshman year, we had 12 girls and this see this grow and win is really amazing ,'' said Emma West, who was one of five Blue Devils to finish among the top 20 individuals.

Talk about a team effort. Haley Milsark, who was the Blue Devils' sixth finisher at PVIACs a week earlier, was the first Northampton runner to cross the finish line with a ninth place showing (20:23).

"That's what is so amazing about this team - anyone of us is capable of being first,'' West said.

Milsark was instrumental in the Blue Devils' regular season success as well.

Blackman staved off a challenge from Belchertown's Madison Granger (19:22) to win the race after finishing second to Carolyn Stocker a year ago.

"I knew that if I wanted to get first I had to train very hard,'' said Blackman. "Maddy (Granger) is always pushing me and I hope I pushed her.''

Granger collapsed at last week's PVIAC and had to leave Stanley Park in an ambulance. She spent Monday and Tuesday in a New York City hospital unsure of running the race at all, but doctors cleared her.

Belchertown and Ludlow tied for third with 132 points, but the Orioles won the tiebreaker because freshman Claire Nauman finished ahead of Ludlow's sixth runner.

"We have three runners (Granger, Bernardin and Lewis) that no other team can boast of, but this year, we have a little more depth,'' Belchertown coach Jason Woodcock said. "We've had individuals qualify before and reaching states was our goal.'' .

Northampton overwhelmed the competition with 72 points, while Amherst had 130.

Gould said she and her teammates were prepared for this day.

"We've known for a while that Northampton was the team to beat,'' she said. "We gave it our best.''

Mount Greylocki had 38 points to repeat as Division II champion. Holyoke Catholic had 112, three better than Lenox.l